Sunday, December 09, 2007

Mariah Carey Festively Slinks Back Into The Charts

Mariah Carey's probably smacking her jingle bells together over the resurgence of her 1994 holiday jam, "All I Want For Christmas Is You."

Well, either that or she got out the jar of Jiffy peanut butter and let the dog go to town on her C note in celebration! "All I Want For Christmas Is You," which originally peaked at #2 on the official U.K. singles chart 13 years ago, benefits from heavy downloading and changes in chart rules over the past couple years. It lands at #8 this week.

But while "All I Want..." is indeed a classic jam, a year prior to Mimi's initial release Saint Etienne teamed up with The Charlatans' Tim Burgess for the festive "I Was Born On Christmas Day" -- one of the more criminally overlooked holiday choons in somewhat recent years.

Here they are performing it live on Top Of The Pops in December 1993.

There are no less than eight Christmas-themed singles in the U.K. Top 40 this week, including The Pogues' "Fairytale Of New York" (#12), Wham!'s "Last Christmas (#23) and the ol' Band Aid standby "Do They Know It's Christmas" (#38).

Elsewhere, Cascada's bland rendition of "What Hurts The Most" [Video] is at #16. I just don't get the popularity of this group and the Euro-stripper that fronts them. Has there ever been another other act that's stretched the exact same beat over every song for two whole albums? A bit further down, Sugababes are at #26 with "Change" two weeks ahead of its CD single release.

Just what we nee -- another cover of What Hurts the Most! That has to be the most-covered song in recent history. The original was done by country singer Mark Willis. Then the Irish girlgroup Bellefire recorded it. Then Jo O'Meara from S Club 7 released it as a single in the UK, where it sadly went largely unnoticed (even though I think her version is the best). And then dreadfully whiny Rascall Flatts released it a year later and had a huge hit. Great song, but I'd give anything not to hear Rascall Flatts sing it.

I remember this song when it was first released 13 years ago. I'm still amazed at how she wrote an original Christmas song that is now a classic gem. I've heard different renditions of this song and for some reason, nothing beats the original.